TIM HOWARD has hailed Wayne Rooney as the best striker in the world as he prepares to face his former team-mate on Saturday.

Everton’s goalkeeper will come face to face with the former Goodison prodigy during England’s opening World Cup game against the USA in Rustenburg on Saturday.

Howard, 31, has first-hand experience of Rooney from their two years together at Manchester United before he moved to Everton in 2006 after the signing of Edwin van der Sar.

He believes there is none better than the 24-year-old who is pivotal to England’s hopes of glory in South Africa.

But Howard has also been impressed by the current USA strike partnership of Edson Buddle and Robert Findley who looked sharp during the weekend victory over Australia in Johannesburg. He said: “I get asked if I am looking forward to facing Wayne Rooney. I don’t think I ever look forward to facing Wayne Rooney.

“He is the best striker in the world and has enjoyed a fantastic season. He is a fantastic player, so I’ll be very careful what I say. But we also have Edson and Robbie who are playing fantastic together, individually and collectively, with the way they are linking up.

“They looked dangerous against Australia and hopefully they will be dangerous for a few more games coming up. It seems everything Edson touches is a goal and Robbie is creating so many chances. It is important the guys are clicking for what is basically a three-game tournament [to qualify] - and those guys are at the moment.”

Howard is disappointed that another former United team-mate in England skipper Rio Ferdinand will miss the tournament through his knee ligament injury suffered in training on Friday.

But he is confident Fabio Capello’s side will recover from this setback in time for the USA clash.

Howard said: “I am devastated for Rio as I am sure most of his team-mates and his friends are. I don’t know how it will affect the team but I think they are all very strong characters. As the week goes on, I am sure they will be fully prepared for the game ahead.”

Howard has also joined the growing list of players criticising the new Adidas World Cup ball. He said: “It’s terrible. You will hear that a lot next week, next month. We are trying to get used to it, trying to read an unreadable situation.

“Hopefully it’s not going to come back and bite us but you are going to see some crazy things with the ball.

“What does it do? What doesn’t it do, would be a better question,” he continued. “It moves all over. If you hit five balls with the same striking motion you wouldn’t get the same result.”

“When you see how the ball is, you’ll find a lot of teams struggle. The majority of the problems in our warm-up game were due to the flight of the ball,” Howard added.

“It puts defenders under pressure. We’re going to have to do some work this week so that we can judge the ball better.”

Meanwhile, the new rival for Howard’s number one jersey at Goodison is looking forward to impressing Evertonians as he stars in Slovakia’s first ever World Cup.

Jan Mucha, 27, joined from Polish side Legia Warsaw last month, and has already insisted he is not simply content to sit on the bench for the Blues.

He said: “I am looking forward to the World Cup this summer. Slovakia are going to the World Cup finals for the first time in their history.

“It means this summer’s tournament and my move to Everton are the best steps in my career so far.”

Slovakia are joined in Group F by defending champions Italy and Paraguay, with New Zealand their opponents in the opening game on Tuesday 15 June.

“On paper I would say this is not the most difficult group but it has some strong teams,” said Mucha.

“Obviously Italy are the current World champions while Paraguay are also a strong side so we will have to see.”